I have been here in BG now for 8 months, where has the time gone When we came we had to have the wood fire as it was still very cold, It was a novelty haviing the fire and now for the past month we have had the fire on in the evenings and the last few days all day and all evening. The novelty is wearing off rapidly. It is time comsumiing and there is not much heat from the logs so the electric rads are on too. This will not be a good situation to start winter off so I have to think of something else. :: have been talking about Aircon heatiing, they swear by it and said it is not expensive to run. The initial layout is expensive but worth it.

I checked in the Aircon shop and they say the bigger the unit the hotter you can go some go up to 30 degrees and you only need one unit for the whole downstairs. Naturally we would need two units for some reason the heat does not reach upstaris it stops on the stair way so very strainge. Anyway the unit the chap suggested to heat a large room will cost 2249 lev with delivery and fitting and the same for upstairs.

Has anyone got this form of heating that also acts as a air con in the summer ?

Can you buy Eco logs? We are using them in conjunction the awful wood bought a month ago (fortunately, only purchased 4 cubics of them!). We had air con in Turkey and it worked fine. A powerful unit is best of course, this unit will cut in and out when it reaches the temperature you have set it on. The weaker units give you temperature you have set it on from the unit, but they won't cut in and out, they stay on all the time and are expensive to run. They are far cheaper in Turkey looking at the price you have been quoted, best to hunt around for cheaper prices, 2000+ Leva seems excessive to me. Don't forget, if you have a power cut, you have nothing! Best to have some form of independent heating from all possibilities.

My experience of aircon heating is that it is very expensive to run and very inefficient.

For that price you must have quoted for a "
Daikin"
inverter air con, they are supposed to be the best/most efficient etc etc, depending on the size of unit your looking at, from 1000lvs will get you one, fitted and working, shop around, tho the inverter models are dearer but are better, most people in town have only air-con, as i and i'm satisfied will them.

We have aircon as a back up.

Your main problem sounds like damp logs, but even so providing you have a good air flow through your petchka it should work and give heat. So I suggest that you clean your chimney stack and flue. If the wood is damp you will get a a dirty smoke and the chimney will semi block quite quickly. You really need to buy your logs earlier in the year. They are cheaper and you can also stack and store them in a dry place, plus you can take your time doing it making it not such a chore.

Edna Bira wrote:

For that price you must have quoted for a "
Daikin"
inverter air con, they are supposed to be the best/most efficient etc etc, depending on the size of unit your looking at, from 1000lvs will get you one, fitted and working, shop around, tho the inverter models are dearer but are better, most people in town have only air-con, as i and i'm satisfied will them.

They might be more efficient in the towns because its warmer than in a village anyway but each to their own.

Andy wrote:

Edna Bira wrote:

For that price you must have quoted for a "
Daikin"
inverter air con, they are supposed to be the best/most efficient etc etc, depending on the size of unit your looking at, from 1000lvs will get you one, fitted and working, shop around, tho the inverter models are dearer but are better, most people in town have only air-con, as i and i'm satisfied will them.

They might be more efficient in the towns because its warmer than in a village anyway but each to their own.

Statistically they are the most efficient forms of heating, along with the benefit of cooling on those hot summer nights, tho i agree in the Villages were you suffer regular blackouts an alternative form of heating is necessary.

oddball wrote:

I have been here in BG now for 8 months, where has the time gone When we came we had to have the wood fire as it was still very cold, It was a novelty haviing the fire and now for the past month we have had the fire on in the evenings and the last few days all day and all evening. The novelty is wearing off rapidly. It is time comsumiing and there is not much heat from the logs so the electric rads are on too. This will not be a good situation to start winter off so I have to think of something else. :: have been talking about Aircon heatiing, they swear by it and said it is not expensive to run. The initial layout is expensive but worth it.

I checked in the Aircon shop and they say the bigger the unit the hotter you can go some go up to 30 degrees and you only need one unit for the whole downstairs. Naturally we would need two units for some reason the heat does not reach upstaris it stops on the stair way so very strainge. Anyway the unit the chap suggested to heat a large room will cost 2249 lev with delivery and fitting and the same for upstairs.

Has anyone got this form of heating that also acts as a air con in the summer ?

Yes most, if not all, Air-con units will blow cold in the summer.

I've been thinking about your issue during my early morning walk (on the beach), it may sound strange but maybe you have too efficient insulation in your home, double glazed windows and doors are great at keeping out the draughts, tho not good for heating that require a flame as its heat source. A simple check when you have the fire going open a window and see if the flame/draw increases, wood would have to be very damp not for it to burn, as the heat created drives out the moisture (unless your not creating enough heat in the 1st place), another potentially dangerous side effect with not having enough air/draught/draw is that the flame will take all the oxygen from the room and replace it with CO and CO2, i recommend (if you don't already have) a CO2 alarm. Also, external insulation (if you have it) is fantastic for "
keeping"
a home nice and warm, but works both ways of course and can keep a home horrible and cold, like a fridge works. The cold cannot escape but only converted into heat from within, maybe just a couple of hours of heating isn't converting this cold efficiently enough, once warm, keeping it warm should be easy.

Edna Bira for your concern and comments, appreciate that very much and will look into your comments/suggestions. Yes we have a CO2 alarm and we keep the lounge widow open on tilt but close the shutters a little so air can get it and it is not too cold. We have double glazing, roller sutters and Dougie said the same as you, insulate from the inside. We will do the north facing wall so that is the next job we will be undertaking soon. The north wall is really cold. Then for some reason the heat does not rise to the second floor. There is only a small opening to the upstairs, which you would think head would flow up but the heat just stop at the top of the ceiling a few steps fro the upstaris. So strange. . See the phicture of the ceiling and the opening below

We don't have air con only wood burners, and we don't have an upstairs. Firstly I think what you have been quoted is rather high so would suggest that you shop around for a better price if this is the road you decide to go down, Firstly when we first came here and it took us a long time to get it right. We insulated the loft to a high standard, also added double glazed windows which we have only just done,(15 years without double glazing lol) and we decided to go for the aluminium ones. The best thing that we did was insulate the house on the outside, we had the whole house done at the one time not just the back wall that faced north. We keep in the one room one of the round wood burners not the most attractive to look at but very effective going all day, then about 4 in the day we light the prity one in the other room, this one does not burn that long and goes out during the night, where the round one will burn right through the night. I also think that the wood that you have is not dry enough as you say you only got it this year, we over order every year so that we have now got a large stock of old dry wood, as every year we have wood left which is then left to dry which we add to the other old wood, this of cause takes time but in the end you get a good stock of old wood each winter. We did look this year into getting air con just for the summer, but with the insulation on the house we find that it does keep it quite cool during the summer months. During the winter months we do clean the pipes every month even though we are using dry wood. Hope you get it sorted and have a warm winter.

Thanks a million guys for your comments really appreciaed it.

We are sorted now Our friend Krum who has helped us several tiime said not to buy anything until he speaks with his friend. He arranged meeting and we discussed what we want. He sorted us the best spec units for the size plus more in our villa, it goes off when temps are reached, it is economical used 0.20 stinkie an hour has temps up to 45 degrees the normal size w would be 3000 odd for our room but these ones are over 5000 so will be lovely and cosy. We ordered two units including fitting will cost 2600 lev and they will fit next Thursday, so very pleased with that .

oddball wrote:

Thanks a million guys for your comments really appreciaed it.

We are sorted now Our friend Krum who has helped us several tiime said not to buy anything until he speaks with his friend. He arranged meeting and we discussed what we want. He sorted us the best spec units for the size plus more in our villa, it goes off when temps are reached, it is economical used 0.20 stinkie an hour has temps up to 45 degrees the normal size w would be 3000 odd for our room but these ones are over 5000 so will be lovely and cosy. We ordered two units including fitting will cost 2600 lev and they will fit next Thursday, so very pleased with that .

It paid to hunt around then Berni - two good units for the original price of one, well done.

itchyfeet wrote:

oddball wrote:

Thanks a million guys for your comments really appreciaed it.

We are sorted now Our friend Krum who has helped us several tiime said not to buy anything until he speaks with his friend. He arranged meeting and we discussed what we want. He sorted us the best spec units for the size plus more in our villa, it goes off when temps are reached, it is economical used 0.20 stinkie an hour has temps up to 45 degrees the normal size w would be 3000 odd for our room but these ones are over 5000 so will be lovely and cosy. We ordered two units including fitting will cost 2600 lev and they will fit next Thursday, so very pleased with that .

It paid to hunt around then Berni - two good units for the original price of one, well done.

Thanks Itchy hopefully it will be ok if it works well here we add one in the 'KaylaLee' Garage apartment. Now have to try to work out how to do the grounds otherwise we won't be able to use the jeep as it wll sink in the mud. We will dig a small shaft for water to flow into first then a channel going down by few inches in stages put some small rubble inside then a long pipe that the water will flow into and at the other end dig a bigger hole like a septic and cover it. That is what I am thinking - so that will take care of the water log. Next Will have to even the garden out somehow lay some plastic and then see about getting stones - my only concern there is if the stones are not thick enough then the jeep will seperate them. The area is very big builder recons we may need 30 or 40ton of stones. maybe we could lay sand down after the plastic I don't know it's all trial and error. Any suggestions Concrete would cost a fortune. The concrete for the boulders and the floor for the KaylaLee cost around £2k what with transport and all.

oddball wrote:

Next Will have to even the garden out somehow lay some plastic and then see about getting stones - my only concern there is if the stones are not thick enough then the jeep will seperate them. The area is very big builder recons we may need 30 or 40ton of stones. maybe we could lay sand down after the plastic I don't know it's all trial and error. Any suggestions Concrete would cost a fortune. The concrete for the boulders and the floor for the KaylaLee cost around £2k what with transport and all.

Ballast is easy to find in BG, price here near VT is 7 Leva a ton and available in varying sizes. Transport is the problem, the price varies greatly and you need to get a few quotes before buying.

Got up this morning to yet another fantastic day and Baba Ginka tells me that the rest of the month is going to be the same
So now my question is Do we really need to fit Aircon now whe now when we are going home just after Christmas so we won't be here for much of the snow anyawy. Or shoould I just go ahead and get it over and done with. We will be back again in April or May.......

I read recently on one of the facebook groups that if you have Aircon units in your house you have to pay municipality tax on each unit. The lady who posted said she pays 50lev per unit. I asked this queston on Facebook and nobody seem to know anything about it Does anyone here know if this is the case.